Henriette Yvonne Stahl (January 9, 1900 – May 25/26, 1984) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n novelist, short story writer and translator.

Biography

Born in Sankt Avold, Alsace-Lorraine, in the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

(now Saint-Avold in the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

department of France), she was illegitimate until her parents' marriage in February 1901. Her mother was Blanche Boueve; her father Henri Stahl, a professor and minor writer, was the son of a Bavarian naturalized citizen of Romania. Her brother was the sociologist and ethnographer

Henri H. Stahl Henri H. Stahl (also known as Henry H. Stahl or H. H. Stahl; 1901 – 9 September 1991) was a Romanian Marxist cultural anthropologist, ethnographer, sociologist, and social historian. Biography Born in Bucharest to a family of Alsatian and ...

. She took private lessons in lieu of attending high school, following which Stahl studied at the Dramatic Arts Conservatory in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

from 1921 to 1925. Her first published work was the short novel ''Voica'', which appeared in ''

Viața Românească ''Viața Românească'' (, "The Romanian Life") is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania. Formerly the platform of the left-wing traditionalist trend known as poporanism, it is now one of the Writers' Union of Romania's main venues. ...

'' in 1924 and was received with enthusiasm by

Garabet Ibrăileanu Garabet Ibrăileanu (; May 23, 1871 – March 11, 1936) was a Romanian-Armenians in Romania, Armenian Literary criticism, literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, University of Iași professor ...

(the magazine's own editor), who proposed it for the

Romanian Writers' Society The Romanian Writers' Society ( ro, Societatea Scriitorilor Români) was a professional association based in Bucharest, Romania, that aided the country's writers and promoted their interests. Founded in 1909, it operated for forty years before the e ...

prize. Her first book was also ''Voica'' (1929), followed by the 1931 short story collection ''Mătușa Matilda''. She then wrote a series of psychological novels: ''Steaua robilor'' (1934), ''Între zi și noapte'' (1942), ''Marea bucurie'' (1946) and ''Fratele meu omul'' (1965). Near the end of her writing career, Stahl returned to short stories, several of which surpassed the quality of some of her novels, and were collected as ''Nu mă călca pe umbră'' (1969). Perfectly fluent in French, she translated a number of her novels into the language and published them in France, meeting with considerable success. She wrote the novel ''Le Temoin de l'Eternité'' (1975) directly in French; a Romanian edition appeared in 1995. Marian Victor Buciu
"Proza Henriettei Yvonne Stahl"
in ''

România Literară ''România Literară'' is a cultural and literary magazine from Romania. In its original edition, it was founded on 1 January 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași until 3 December 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared on ...

'', nr. 7/2008 Her translations into Romanian were

Eugène Sue Marie-Joseph "Eugène" Sue (; 26 January 18043 August 1857) was a French novelist. He was one of several authors who popularized the genre of the serial novel in France with his very popular and widely imitated ''The Mysteries of Paris'', which ...

's '' Mysteries of Paris'';

Emily Brontë Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, ''Wuthering Heights'', now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a book of poet ...

's ''

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their tur ...

'' (1959);

John Galsworthy John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include ''The Forsyte Saga'' (1906–1921) and its sequels, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of the Chapter''. He won the Nobel Prize i ...

's ''

Forsyte Saga ''The Forsyte Saga'', first published under that title in 1922, is a series of three novels and two interludes published between 1906 and 1921 by the English author John Galsworthy, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. They chronicle the vi ...

'' (1958-1961, four volumes);

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

's ''Gora'' (1965);

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court in the Heian period. She is best known as the author of '' The Tale of Genji,'' widely considered to be one of the world's first novels, written in Japanese between abou ...

's ''

Tale of Genji Tale may refer to: * Narrative, or story, a report of real or imaginary connected events * TAL effector (TALE), a type of DNA binding protein * Tale, Albania, a resort town * Tale, Iran, a village * Tale, Maharashtra, a village in Ratnagiri distri ...

'' (1969) and, in collaboration, several plays by

Ivan Turgenev Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 (Old Style dat ...

(1958). In 1981, she was awarded the

Romanian Writers' Union The Writers' Union of Romania (), founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova. The Writers' Union of Romania was created by the communist regime by taking ...

special prize.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. II, p. 597. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. By and large, critics did not place Stahl at the forefront of Romanian prose writers.

George Călinescu George Călinescu (; 19 June 1899, Bucharest – 12 March 1965, Otopeni) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the mos ...

accused her of an "exaggerated feminism", and while recognizing that several characters rang true, believed this insufficient to cover her deficiencies. In ''Istoria literaturii române'',

Ion Negoițescu Ion Negoiţescu (; also known as Nego; August 10, 1921 – February 6, 1993) was a Romanian literary historian, critic, poet, novelist and memoirist, one of the leading members of the Sibiu Literary Circle. A rebellious and eccentric figure, Nego ...

was enthusiastic about two novels, but kept silent about the rest. Stahl was romantically involved with two fellow writers,

Ion Vinea Ion Vinea (born Ioan Eugen Iovanaki, sometimes Iovanache; April 17, 1895 – July 6, 1964) was a Romanian poet, novelist, journalist, literary theorist, and political figure. He became active on the modernist scene during his teens—his poetic wo ...

and

Petru Dumitriu Petru Dumitriu (; 8 May 1924 – 6 April 2002) was a Romanian-born novelist who wrote both in Romanian and in French. Biography Dumitriu was born in Baziaș, in the Banat region of Romania. His father was a Romanian army officer and his moth ...

. Clara Mărgineanu
"Henriette Yvonne Stahl, printre stele norocoase"
, ''

Jurnalul Național ''Jurnalul Național'' is a Romanian newspaper, part of the INTACT Media Group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular television station Antena 1. The newspaper was launched in 1993. Its headquarters is in Bucharest Bucharest ...

'', March 15, 2010"Dragostea scriitorilor în vremea Securității"
''

Evenimentul Zilei ''Evenimentul Zilei'' is a formerly physical and now exclusively online newspaper in Romania. Its name means "today's even (news)". History and profile ''Evenimentul Zilei'' was founded by Ion Cristoiu, Cornel Nistorescu and Mihai Cârciog, an ...

'', February 19, 2008 After the latter fled

Communist Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist One-party state, one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the s ...

, she was arrested, interrogated and detained for a year, threatened with a charge of high treason after admitting she knew of his plans.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stahl, Henriette Yvonne 1900 births 1984 deaths People from Saint-Avold Romanian people of French descent Caragiale Academy of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography alumni Romanian novelists Romanian women short story writers Romanian short story writers Romanian translators Romanian writers in French Romanian prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Romania 20th-century translators Romanian expatriates in Germany